The adventure of a Texas man surviving on a deserted island in Fortune Bay while streaming live on Facebook has ended safely, but ahead of schedule.
Mack McGowen arrived back home to his wife and daughter in Tyler, Texas on Thursday after 12 days alone on Brunette Island as part of Castaway Live. He had originally planned to spend three weeks on the island.
McGowen said the wind provided the biggest challenge, and when the 85 km/h gusts let up, he took his chance to leave safely.
“We had a little window, an opportunity to get off the island and we decided to take it, otherwise I’d probably still be out there,” he said.
“It was just really, really blowing — blew the window out of a little shack I was hanging out in, blew the door open.”
McGowen said with the Newfoundland weather, it was always possible that he would have to end his survival mission ahead of schedule.
“About the second day I thought I was going to leave, and then about the fourth or fifth day I thought I was going to leave,” he said.
“It was always a possibility that I was going to leave early, just because of the time of year that we picked.”
Mack McGowen streamed his experience on Brunette Island, in Fortune Bay live on Facebook. (CBC)
McGowen lost about 20 pounds over the 12 days he was on Brunette Island, eating around 1000 calories a day from what he could forage from the land and the water.
“[I had] berries, oyster weed, which is a small weed that grows near rocky dunes, rocket, which is a kind of spicy plant, and of course there was some mussels here and there, if I could find them,” he said.
“And I also had some emergency rations, which were just freeze dried food to suppliment.”
Now that he’s back at home with his family, McGowan said the isolation of Brunette Island really stood out from his Castaway Live experience.
“It wasn’t that bad until I got back to Dallas,” he said.
“It’s a really busy city … I’m just blown away by the noise and the busyness and all the cars and the traffic, and it’s like ‘oh my gosh, I kind of forgot.’ I wasn’t gone that long, but long enough to get used to being by myself and a slower pace of living.”
‘So friendly and helpful’
While streaming his experience online, McGowan said many people left comments expressing concern for his well-being, especially locals. It even led to a spoof on CBC Television’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
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“The people up there are just so friendly and so helpful, so much hospitality and generosity, I think it was probably hard for a lot of them not to want to come out, physically,” he said.
“It’s a testament to how nice everyone is up there, everyone wanted to come out and make me some stew, so 22 Minutes made light of that.”
McGowan said he expects to produce two videos soon with the highlights of everything he shot while on the island during Castaway Live.
He also said he’s seen the 22 Minutes sketch and thinks it’s “hilarious.”